He actually built his stuff on others work, so I agree. I'd have to call him more craftsman than innovator...he made noise reduction work well, when it had not previously, but did not invent the idea. As far as number of units in place, that's more a testimonial to marketing than innovation.Originally Posted by GM
To me, a true innovator is say, Thomas Edison, who had WAY more than one idea.
Dolby never had the class of for example Dick Burwen...
Dick Burwen
I mean, find me a link to Dolby's home system wouldja?
In the pro audio world, Bose stands for Bring Other Sound Equipment. But their airplane headsets work well, still have a set somewhere.
Your neighbors called. They like your music.
History is not always kind to inventors. Inventions are often attributed by reason of commercial success, fraud, professional eminence, misappropriation of credit, ignorance of events elsewhere, and even national jealousy.
Do a Google search for invention 'light bulb' and 'sewing machine' for examples.
Mark Twain was an inventor. The last comment in this link is quite interesting: Mark Twain quotations - Invention
Opinion is only as valid as its verifiable supporting evidence.
Of course Edison did not invent the bulb. He did invent a new type of filament that actually worked long enough to make it usable. What is the definition of invention- the concept or making it work? IMHO both.
So Dolby make noise reduction commercially viable, by doing a number of little things differently, and deserves full credit for those, but not for the concept of noise reduction. Both are important- we don't want wonderful experimental devices that break constantly, and we get tired of old stuff. It's kinda like a good stew, takes a lot of things, in this case ideas, to make it good.
Heck I even respect Uli Behringer for selling cheap stuff that works well enough for amateurs. Because of him many other items have come down in price. He gets disparaged way worse than Edison.
Your neighbors called. They like your music.
Edison is generally given credit for inventing the light bulb when in fact he came up with a cheaper practical filament. This was further developed by others and so Edison's bamboo-based filaments were superseded. The guy who came up with the Tungsten filament would claim credit as its inventor.
The definition of inventor is not tight. If you get credit as inventor on an issued patent you are probably the legal inventor even if in practise this was not so.
Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventor_(patent)
Opinion is only as valid as its verifiable supporting evidence.
He did publicly electrocute an adult African elephant though, and he doesn't get nearly enough credit for it.Edison is generally given credit for inventing the light bulb when in fact..................
I certainly would have chosen a better example than that shrewd prick, he was far more an opportunistic scavenger(the Bald Eagle), and greedy capitalist than inventor.
Not all vegetables make good leaders.
Ray Dolby may not have been the first to produce a noise reduction system for audio but his approach was qualified by patents and exploited in conjunction with Koninkliijke Philips N.V to make the Compact Cassette a competitor to and a much more versatile medium than the vinyl record.
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Re the elephant - Edison would have got a better result had he bumped-off Nicola Tesla.
Opinion is only as valid as its verifiable supporting evidence.
he did invent what we here in florida would refer to as "old sparky" and the term "enough to kill an elephant"
he also killed a few dogs. (although he likely would have rather used Nicola.) this was to show how dangerous he was,,, oops I meant AC current.
Sonic Barbarian
The Edison family promoted electrocution. Edison sold DC, Westinghouse systems were AC. The first criminal electrocution they actually called it "Westinghoused" to scare people away from alternating current.
Your neighbors called. They like your music.
This is an interesting article on variable amplifier impedance: Variable Amplifier Impedance
At the end of the article there is an example of a questionable granting of a patent and thus accreditation of invention. Patents are not infallible but once issued can be costly to challenge in the courts.
Opinion is only as valid as its verifiable supporting evidence.
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